Biography
Originating from China yet now based in Berlin, Pan Daijing operates as both musician and performance artist, shaping an expansive range of raw, emotionally purging experimental sounds that stretch from abrasive industrial noise to operatic compositions. Her approach centers on improvisation and narrative, drawing from analog synthesizers, field recordings, and above all her own arresting vocal presence. The widely praised debut album Lack appeared in 2017, followed by the premiere of the opera/exhibition performance Tissues at the Tate Modern, whose studio version surfaced in 2022.
Her initial release came in 2015 via the cassette Sex & Disease, which presented disquieting industrial soundscapes. Attention followed for her intense live confrontations and bold, wide-ranging DJ selections. Visibility increased markedly in 2017 after Bedouin Records issued the EP A Satin Sight, filled with severe industrial techno, while two tracks featured on Power Vacuum’s Vectors 3 compilation, among them the aptly named “Very Uncomfortable Please.” She also connected with Bill Kouligas’ Pan imprint, contributing to its well-received ambient/experimental collection Mono No Aware that same year; the label subsequently put out Lack, which combined field recordings with segments from her spontaneous performances. Further appearances included Houndstooth’s 2018 compilation In Death’s Dream Kingdom, drawn from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men,” alongside recordings by Amnesia Scanner and Yves Tumor.
Institutions including the Tate Modern, Martin Gropius Bau, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt commissioned her for live presentations. Her second album, the brooding and unsettling Jade, arrived in 2021. The five-act opera Tissues, first staged at the Tate Modern in 2019, received its studio release in early 2022. Later that year she joined X100, a festival honoring Iannis Xenakis and staged at Kraftwerk Berlin. In 2023 she unveiled pieces such as Until Due Time, Everything Is Else.
Her initial release came in 2015 via the cassette Sex & Disease, which presented disquieting industrial soundscapes. Attention followed for her intense live confrontations and bold, wide-ranging DJ selections. Visibility increased markedly in 2017 after Bedouin Records issued the EP A Satin Sight, filled with severe industrial techno, while two tracks featured on Power Vacuum’s Vectors 3 compilation, among them the aptly named “Very Uncomfortable Please.” She also connected with Bill Kouligas’ Pan imprint, contributing to its well-received ambient/experimental collection Mono No Aware that same year; the label subsequently put out Lack, which combined field recordings with segments from her spontaneous performances. Further appearances included Houndstooth’s 2018 compilation In Death’s Dream Kingdom, drawn from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men,” alongside recordings by Amnesia Scanner and Yves Tumor.
Institutions including the Tate Modern, Martin Gropius Bau, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt commissioned her for live presentations. Her second album, the brooding and unsettling Jade, arrived in 2021. The five-act opera Tissues, first staged at the Tate Modern in 2019, received its studio release in early 2022. Later that year she joined X100, a festival honoring Iannis Xenakis and staged at Kraftwerk Berlin. In 2023 she unveiled pieces such as Until Due Time, Everything Is Else.
Albums
Singles